Since Russian President Vladimir Putin's successful visit to China last year, China-Russia relations have been further boosted, Hu said.

Leaders of two countries have kept close ties, he said, and have enhanced consultations and coordination on important international issues, making a positive effort for world peace and stability.

Bilateral cooperation in other fields also moved forward, and China, together with Russia, on the basis of strategic cooperation, will make insistent efforts to fully implement the Sino-Russian Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation for healthy, continued and stable development of such relations in the new century, he said.

Referring to the issue of Iraq, Hu said all-out efforts should be made to avoid war, from the perspective of maintaining regional and world peace and development and humanitarian considerations.

This is the common wish of the international community, and serves the interests of various parties concerned, he said.

It is urgent to continue to implement Resolution 1441 for a political solution of the Iraqi issue in the framework of the United Nations, he said.

Hu also reiterated China's stance on the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula.

Ivanov said he fully agreed with Hu's comments on bilateral relations. The two countries have been cooperating very well in the framework of the treaty, and keeping close exchanges at all levels, he said.

Russia's good-neighborly policy towards China is a strategic and historical choice, and will be continued, he said.

Ivanov spoke highly of the bilateral cooperation in international fields, stressing the consolidation of such cooperation under current circumstances.

He also briefed Hu on Russia's stances on the issues of Iraq and the Korean peninsula, expressing his condolences on the casualties as well as property losses from the recent earthquake in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2003)